Download Bee biology: the basics - Wake County Beekeepers

Wake County Beekeepers Association March 24, 2012
BEE BIOLOGY: THE BASICS
PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Honeybee Anatomy
Biology & Life Cycle
BASIC INSECT BODY STRUCTURE
3 - Body Segments
• Head
• Thorax
• Abdomen
6 - Legs
2 - Antennae
4 - Wings
BODY SEGMENTS: THE HEAD
BODY SEGMENTS: THE HEAD
Major sensory region, includes five (5) eyes:
• Compound Eyes (2)
•
•
•
eyes with thousands of facets
sees ultraviolet wavelengths (UV / shortwave)
ocelli
detects depth and color
compound eye
• Ocelli (3)
•
•
simple eye
used to detect visible spectrum light
BODY SEGMENTS: THE HEAD
Major sensory region of the body
• Antennae
•
•
Perception: touch & smell
Climate: temperature & humidity
• Mouth – 2 main parts
•
•
Mandibles: teeth used for chewing
Proboscis: tongue used for ingestion of liquids
BODY SEGMENTS: THE THORAX
Locomotion Center of a Honey Bee
• Wings
• consist of fore & hind wings
• held together by the himuli
Example of
deformed wings
worker
queen
drone
BODY SEGMENTS: THE THORAX
Locomotion Center of a Honey Bee
Bees have six (6) legs total
1st Pair of legs:
•
•
locomotion
antenna cleaner
2nd Pair of legs:
•
•
stability when walking
tibial spur for wax grabbing
3rd Pair of legs:
•
pollen baskets used to carry pollen
BEE HAIR & POLLEN BASKETS
Pollen Collection
• Pollen baskets – located
on rear legs
• Carries both pollen and
propolis
• Bee hair traps and
distributes pollen from
one flower to another
• MAIN SOURCE OF
PROTEIN FOR BEES
BODY SEGMENTS: THE ABDOMEN
BODY SEGMENTS: THE ABDOMEN
Site of digestive & reproductive organs
• Nasonov Glad
•
•
located at the apex of the bee’s abdomen
emits pheromones to orient foragers to their colonies
• Spermatheca
•
where queen stores accumulated semen from drones
BODY SEGMENTS: THE ABDOMEN
• Wax glands
•
•
active only on young “nurse” bees only (workers)
9 grams honey needed to produce 1 gram wax
• Spiracles: air intake organs
•
•
tiny holes used for breathing
located laterally along both sides of abdomen
• Stinger: protective organ
•
•
venom gland & barbed stinger
drones lack stingers
INTERNAL ANATOMY
INTERNAL ANATOMY
Hypopharyngeal Gland
• Produces the food
• Nurse bees have huge glands because they feed
developing larvae
• Secretes invertase to make nectar into honey
INTERNAL ANATOMY
Defense: The Stinger
• Alarm pheromone smells like banana Laffy Taffy
• Sharp barbs enable the stinger to remain in
attacker’s skin
• Bee dies when stinger
stays behind
• Made of peptotides &
protein
MORPHOLOGY: WHO’S WHO?
MORPHOLOGY: WHO’S WHO?
WORKERS
•
•
•
•
•
•
STERILE FEMALES
live only six weeks
perform all colony labor
tens of thousands per colony
have wax & hypopharyngeal glands
smaller than queen; wings equal to abdomen
wax glands
MORPHOLOGY: WHO’S WHO?
QUEEN
• FERTILE FEMALE
• one per colony
• typically lives 2 years (should
requeen every 2 years)
• can lay up to 1,800 eggs per day
• purpose is colony reproduction
• elongated abdomen, wings shorter
MORPHOLOGY: WHO’S WHO?
DRONES
•
•
•
•
male, no stingers
only a few hundred per colony
live spring/summer, die in winter
mates with queens from other hives;
only purpose is for out-of-colony reproduction
• larger than workers, smaller than the queen
LIFE CYCLE
Biology of individuals
Biology of a colony
LIFE CYCLE
Biology of individuals
• All individuals undergo complete metamorphosis
Stage 1:
Stage 2:
Stage 3:
Stage 4:
Egg
Larva – stage where bees grow in size
Pupa – full-sized larva are capped
Adult – emerge as worker, drone or queen
• Length of time from egg to adult emergence varies
for worker, queen and drone
• 2 sexes (female / male)
• 2 female castes (queen / worker)
LIFE CYCLE
LIFE CYCLE
eggs
LIFE CYCLE
Biology of the worker
• Egg: 3 days
• Larva: 6 days
• Pupa: 12 days
Emerge after 21 days
Life Span: 6 weeks
LIFE CYCLE
Workers’ roles change with age
Days 2 - 10: First Phase
cell cleaning – first task upon emerging
brood incubation, feeding older larvae (nursing
behavior)
Days 11 - 20: Second Phase
cleaning & hive maintenance:
making wax, packing pollen, honey processing
wax glands function by day 12;
stinger by day 18
LIFE CYCLE
Workers’ roles change with age
Day 21 – end of life: Last Phase
foraging for nectar, pollen, water & propolis
Other activities include
providing ventilation,
humidity / temperature
control and guard duty.
LIFE CYCLE
Biology of the queen
• Egg: 3 days
• Larva: 5.5 days
• Pupa: 7.5 days
Emerge after 16 days total
Life Span: 2 to 5 years
LIFE CYCLE
Biology of the queen
• Peanut shaped cells oriented vertically on a frame
• Queens develop and emerge upside down
• Developing queen larvae fed a high-protein
substance called royal jelly
• Smooth stinger, more venom than worker
• Spermatheca: sperm storage organ in abdomen
• Mates once in her life, but with multiple mates
LIFE CYCLE
Biology of the queen
Day 1:
May kill sealed queens; colony may swarm
Days 3 – 5: Takes orientation flights
Week 1 – 3: Mating flights
Week 3 – 5: Starts laying 2 - 4 days after mating; will
not leave hive again unless the colony
swarms
LIFE CYCLE
Biology of the queen
• Produces pheromones (chemical messengers) that
inform the colony of her presence & inhibit queen
raising
• If the queen dies, is removed or is failing, workers
can produce queens from fertilized eggs
• Fertilized eggs produce workers or queens;
unfertilized eggs produce drones
• Queens are produced when the colony swarms
LIFE CYCLE
LIFE CYCLE
Biology of the drone
• Egg: 3 days
• Larva: 6.5 days
• Pupa: 14.5 days
Emerge after 24 days total
Longer development time makes their larvae more
attractive to varroa mites
Life Span: 1-2 months
LIFE CYCLE
Biology of the drone
•
Drone cells are located on the periphery of the brood nest
•
50% larger than worker pupae
•
Dome-shaped capping indicates a drone cell
•
Has larger eyes because mating occurs in flight: large eyes
helps them locate a queen
•
Reproductive organs break off after mating and drone dies
•
In the winter the workers kick the Drones out of the hive
= they are too expensive for the hive during the winter
months
LIFE CYCLE
What makes insects social?
Cooperative brood care
•
females share rearing of all young
Reproductive division of labor
•
some individuals abandon their own reproductive
efforts to contribute to their sisters’
Overlapping generations
•
offspring remain in the nest to help rear more offspring
LIFE CYCLE
Biology of a colony
Two main goals:
• Colony reproduction
•
Winter survival
Key elements:
• Overwintering
• Spring reproduction
• Foraging efficiency
LIFE CYCLE
Overwintering
• Bees cluster in nest center to conserve heat; queen
at center of cluster
• Maintenance of heat dynamic is energy-intense
and requires large food stores
• Cluster moves up / laterally over winter’s course,
consuming food stores
• Little brood present until after winter solstice
LIFE CYCLE
Spring reproduction: peak brood production
• Queen begins laying eggs after winter solstice
• Food requirements increase; mid- to late-winter is
colony’s highest risk of starvation / freezing
• Population build-up intends to support colony
fission, or swarming: creation of a new colony
• When spring forage is high, crowded colony may
form swarm cells, ready to create a new queen
• Swarm cells found on the bottom of brood
frames
LIFE CYCLE
Reproductive goal: a swarm
• Old queen leaves, usually on a warm afternoon,
with about ½ the colony
• Departed swarm may linger outside near the hive
for some hours, until a new location is found
• Remaining colony members rear new queen from
swarm cells
• First queen to emerge kills other developing
queens; queens that emerge simultaneously fight
for supremacy
LIFE CYCLE
Colony population peaks late spring / early summer
LIFE CYCLE
Colony
brood
production
peaks in
the spring,
ahead of
colony
population
peak
LIFE CYCLE
Communication within the hive
Queen’s pheromones / queen substance
• Queen surrounded by “retinue” of workers who lick &
fan her pheromones throughout the hive,
communicating her presence
• When queen is absent or failing, reduced levels of
queen substance stimulate formation of queen cells
• Smoke calms bees by disrupting communications
within the hive, confusing the bees
LIFE CYCLE
Foraging efficiency
• Colony population ranges from 10,000 to 60,000
insects over a year
• Needs 60 – 100+ pounds of honey to overwinter
• Annual foraging period measured in weeks
• Hive’s reception of foragers’ offerings shifts what
foragers collect
• Foragers communicate location, richness of source
to recruit other foragers to same resource
LIFE CYCLE
Communication among foragers
Workers’ dances communicate location, richness of
resource (nectar, pollen)
•
•
Round dance: nearby source
Wagtail dance: distance, direction of source
Typically collect nectar in
the morning, especially
during warmer months
***Key Facts***
• Bee Space is 3/8 inch
• A package of bees typically contains 12,000 bees + a
queen (the queen is enclosed in a queen cage)
• Source of Protein for bees is Pollen, Carbohydrate
source is Honey
• Best direction to place a hive is South East
• Most popular breed of bee in the US = Italian